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Students invent quieter leaf blower

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Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower

#211

Post by bluGill »

kortilla wrote: post #99
lowercased wrote: post #15

Won't help much until these are mandated by law, or.. we just wait for a couple generations to die out. There's a section of folks who enjoy loud engines. It's their jam, they love being 'outdoors' with loud gas powered engines, big trucks, riding lawn mowers. It's a fantasy escape world for them. Over time, the next couple generations may hopefully adopt more battery powered outdoor stuff (mowers, blowers, etc) beca…

This is a shitty take. Everyone I know who refuses to use battery powered landscaping equipment absolutely hates the noise and dealing with the gas engines. The problem is that the battery stuff doesn’t compete on price/power if you’re doing basically anything more than a lawn measured in square feet.

Battery stuff is just fine on the power aspect. However price weight kill you. Gas is light for the amount of runtime you get, while a battery is very heavy. A contractor will need more than $1000 worth of batteries to get through a day per person or $4 worth of gasoline.

Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower

#212

Post by ericd »

sandworm101 wrote: post #121
vouaobrasil wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly right. It's asinine to blow leaves. They don't do any damage and they create habitats for spiders and insects. I hate poeple who want clean, empty mowed lawns, aiming for an ideal that is far away from nature. Sickening.

>> It's asinine to blow leaves. They don't do any damage and they create habitats for spiders and insects. Leaves are a problem in many areas, be them footpaths, roads or even railways. And good luck trying to maintain a golf course by just leaving the leaves out to rot on the grass. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-58783589 "Dry ice to help cut train delays caused by leaves on tracks"

I'm guessing that the person you're responding to isn't a huge fan of huge expanses of tightly mowed grass in the form of golf courses, either.

Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower

#213

Post by [deleted] »

kqr wrote: post #107
mlrtime wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just bought a battery powered lead blower from Costco. It's my first one and it's awesome! I use it all the time for things I didn't think I would. However, it is still very loud and doesn't last long enough for commercial use. One instance recently, had a few very aggressive wasps in the garage (Son is allergic). In the past I'd use some chemicals, the leaf blower got them out in seconds, it's so powerful it blew…

I'm a bit frightened to ask what surprising use cases you found for a lead blower. On a more constructive note, I don't know where people get the idea that battery powered means quiet. My vacuum is electric and far from quiet – why would a leaf blower be?

[deleted]

Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower

#214

Post by bluGill »

lupire wrote: post #192
cruffle_duffle wrote: post #184

Naw. Leaf blowers should be straight up banned. They are pointless and a massive source of obnoxious noise pollution. Seriously though, what do they even do?

They move leaves off of surfaces where they are a nuisance, to a disposal area.

So does a rake or broom. It needs more manual labor to do it that way.

Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower

#215

Post by webdoodle »

sevenf0ur wrote: post #175
phillipcarter wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rakes exist. It's (often but not always) slower work, but it's quieter.

Moving hundreds of pounds of leaves each season is backbreaking and time consuming work. The game changer is to rake the edges in and mulch them with a mower. Not quiet but it's quick.

Most American's would benefit greatly from some time consuming work. The comments on HN would likely improve from the mood altering benefits of exercise as well.

Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower

#217

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

sidewndr46 wrote: post #100
mikeyouse wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many affluent areas have already banned gas leaf blowers and it’s incredible how quiet the battery powered replacements are. I was in Palm Springs recently and had nearly walked past a landscaper using one before if occurred to me just how quiet it was - didn’t even interrupt our conversation. I believe it was a Stihl backpack version (maybe https://www.stihlusa.com/products/blowers-and-shredder-vacs/... ) but yeah,…

It isn't so much the noise that bothers me, what I've never understood about leaf blowers is what are they meant to accomplish? When I watch people use them they either blow the leaves into the street or the neighbors yard. What do they think that does? Now on the other hand, I do own a very noisy leaf vacuum. But when I've collected a bag full I can just deposit the leaves in my collection container. They are taken…

A groupof Bay Area condo and apartment owners discuss that they don’t understand leaf blowers. Good thread.

Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower

#218

Post by handsclean »

stevage wrote: post #203
handsclean wrote: post #199

There’s some other “quiet leaf blower” on the market, and all they’re doing is reducing power and telling you special nozzles make up for it, which of course they don’t. This article omitting performance measures is a red flag for me. What’s the CFM impact? It’s 40% quieter, but is it also 40% worse at blowing leaves?

It says like 10 times in the video that equal performance was the KPI.

Timestamp? I’ve watched the video twice now and read the whole article and can’t find one mention of it. The closest is one statement of “it keeps all that force still there”, which is vague, definitely not the same thing as CFM, and sounds like the sort of statement that’s compatible with the aforementioned nozzle lines.

Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower

#219

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

klankschap wrote: post #54

How about just leaving leaves for what they are. Just leave them and move on with your own life.

So, you don’t have a large maple next to your drive way, do you?

If I didn’t have a leaf blower, my driveway would be solid ice in the winter, mud in the spring and fall, and dust in the summer.

Re: Students invent quieter leaf blower

#220

Post by dgacmu »

sidewndr46 wrote: post #100
mikeyouse wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many affluent areas have already banned gas leaf blowers and it’s incredible how quiet the battery powered replacements are. I was in Palm Springs recently and had nearly walked past a landscaper using one before if occurred to me just how quiet it was - didn’t even interrupt our conversation. I believe it was a Stihl backpack version (maybe https://www.stihlusa.com/products/blowers-and-shredder-vacs/... ) but yeah,…

It isn't so much the noise that bothers me, what I've never understood about leaf blowers is what are they meant to accomplish? When I watch people use them they either blow the leaves into the street or the neighbors yard. What do they think that does? Now on the other hand, I do own a very noisy leaf vacuum. But when I've collected a bag full I can just deposit the leaves in my collection container. They are taken…

I use mine (electric) to blow leaves from the street and sidewalk back onto my grass so that I can mulch them with the lawn mower. I also use it to blow debris back onto the grass-free perennials area around my tree to get free mulch. I'm weird, but it's really handy for that. The entire reason I own a lawn mower and a leaf blower is because I couldn't find a lawn care crew that would mulch everything in place - everyone around here wants to take your leaves away and then bring in artificially dyed mulch (and charge you for it).

They also work for blowing snow off the sidewalk if the snow is still fluffy.

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